Median Price: The Most Misunderstood Number in Property
Let’s clear something up: the median price is not what your home is worth. It is also not the average (even though half your mates at a dinner party will swear it is).
The median is simply the middle number when you line up all the sales from lowest to highest.
Odd number of sales? It’s the one smack in the middle.
Even number of sales? It’s the average of the two middle ones.
More data = more meaningful. Less data = more wobbly than a newborn foal.
That’s it. No magic, no secret sauce.
Yet every year, the REIV, CoreLogic and the media drop quarterly “median prices,” and half the city either celebrates like their equity just doubled or panics because apparently their suburb is “down.” Both reactions: unnecessary.
The median doesn’t tell you what your property is worth. It’s just a single summary number pulled from a big pile of sales. And yes, it’s shocking how many people confuse it with the average. (Tip: don’t ask a mathematician at a dinner party unless you want charts with your charcuterie.)
I was at one recently where people were arguing about why one suburb’s median went up and another went down—even though they were practically neighbours. Then someone asked, “Wait… does anyone actually know how the median is calculated?”
Dead. Silence.
So… what about the average (mean)?
Ah, the average. The crowd favourite.
And also… the troublemaker.
It’s easy to calculate, but it gets messy when the data is skewed.
Example: if a few mega-sales hit the market (think waterfront mansions), the average jumps, but the median stays chill. That difference between the two tells you whether the market is genuinely shifting or if a handful of flashy results are hogging the spotlight.
Then there’s the mode—the number that pops up the most. Not very glamorous, but useful when you want to see where the bulk of real buyers are actually transacting. Safety in numbers and all that.
What actually matters?
None of these measures—median, average, or mode—mean much on their own.
But track them together over time and suddenly you’ve got trends. Real insight. A sense of the market’s pulse, not just the headline grab.
So next time you hear the median is up or down for the quarter:
Don’t celebrate.
Don’t panic.
Don’t list your house out of spite.
Just compare it to the last few quarters or look at the rolling 12-month trend. Now that actually tells a story.
And if someone brings up median prices at your next dinner party?
Ask them:
“Cool — but how does that compare to the previous three quarters?”
Congratulations. You just became the most interesting person at the table.
(Well… property-wise. Your rizz levels are your responsibility.)
